It was already December 8 on the Island of Java in the Dutch East Indies when Japanese bombers and torpedo planes dove down out of the morning sky onto the U.S. Pacific Fleet at rest in Pearl Harbor. I was not yet 8 years old then and it happened 75 years ago but I still […]
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WRECKS OF DUTCH WWII SHIPS MYSTERIOUSLY VANISH FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE JAVA SEA
The remains of these 3 Dutch ships are from the Battle of the Java Sea which was fought on February 27, 1942 between a hastily assembled battle group of Dutch, British, American and Australian ships led by the Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman and the overwhelming Japanese fleet steaming towards the Island of Java. It was […]
WORLD WAR II ENDS ON SEPTEMBER 2, 1945
World War II ended on September 2, 1945 as Japan formally surrendered to the Allied Forces by signing the rigid terms of the Articles of Capitulation aboard the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. In addition to the United States, the Articles were signed by China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, […]
SPEECHES BY SHINZO ABE ARE NOT LIKELY TO BE AS REMORSEFUL AS VICTIM NATIONS WOULD LIKE
Maryknoll Fr William Grimm, publisher of ucanews.com, based in Tokyo, Japan, posted the following commentary on April 21, 2015 on the background of coming speeches by Shinzo Abe, and I am reposting it with permission. This is an insightful and balanced article covering a touchy subject that will remain in the news from now through […]
ANNIVERSARY OF FIREBOMBING RAID ON TOKYO March 10, 1945
SEVENTEEN MONTHS AGO I PUBLISHED A BLOG ABOUT THE DEADLIEST CONVENTIONAL AIR RAID EVER, USING THE NEWLY INVENTED NAPALM BOMBS. AS THE DEAD TOLL OF THIS FIREBOMBING RAID ON TOKYO EXCEEDED THE DEATH TOLL OF EITHER OF THE ATOMIC BOMBS, WE CAN THINK OF IT AS THE DEADLIEST AIR RAID EVER. AND YET THE MEMORY […]
Save us from the madness – Barry Black on Government Shutdown
Rear Admiral Barry C. Black (RET) is the chaplain of the United States Senate who spoke these words in his morning invocations in the Senate at the beginning of the Government Shutdown: “May they remember that all that is necessary for unintended catastrophic consequences is for good people to do nothing.” Tuesday 10/01/13, the morning […]